1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to the production of aromatics. More specifically, the field relates to a system and method for producing aromatics from gas condensates.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally wide boiling range condensates from natural gas, light condensate, natural gas liquid, shale gas, and other gas or liquid hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs that produce light petroleum liquids (C3-12 range) are sent to fractionation columns and are distilled using techniques similar to those used for fractionating crude oil in an atmospheric pressure crude separations tower. The fractionated products—liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), natural gasoline, naphtha, and atmospheric gas oil fractions—are then typically processed for various impurities that occur within each boiling fraction before they are used to produce refined product fuels and petrochemicals, including olefins, gasoline and blending components of gasoline, kerosene and diesel.
Other uses of wide boiling range condensates include feeding the condensate to a steam-cracking reformer or a pyrolysis furnace to crack the material into light olefins, especially C2-4 olefins, for direct use in petrochemical manufacturing of polymers and other light olefin derivatives. Another process using a condensate includes combining the condensate material with hydrocarbon stream from a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process. Both of these processes, however, struggle with handling the impurities that come with the wide boiling range condensate, including sulfur and nitrogen-bearing compounds, and heterorganic species with nickel and vanadium.
It is desirable to find a more direct process for receiving a wide boiling range condensate, which many within the industry consider as an alternative feedstock, from its production source with minimal pre-treatment for conversion into useful petrochemicals, especially aromatic commodity chemicals including benzene, toluene and the xylenes. Such chemicals have a global marketplace and are not limited to local use, unlike light olefins with their high reactivity. It is also desirable to have a system that eliminates the necessity of separating the wide boiling range condensate first into fractional components. As well, there is interest in preventing the build-up of sulfur or metal-based fouling within the processing system regardless of technique.